Jakarta – UN officials believe East Timorese refugees they met during a visit last week to camps in West Timor were instructed to challenge the results of the 1999 independence ballot, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

Officials from the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) visited four refugee camps on the Indonesian half of Timor island, to encourage tens of thousands of refugees there to return home.

The UN and all other international aid agencies have been absent from West Timor since three UN refugee workers were killed by a mob of East Timorese militiamen in the border town of Atambua on September 6.

The charge was contained in a transcript of a press briefing given in the East Timor capital Dili, by UNTAET chief of staff and delegation leader N. Parameswaran, which was received by AFP here.

Parameswaran said that in each of the camps several refugees challenged the outcome of the ballot, which voted overwhelmingly for East Timor's independence from Indonesia, in what appeared to be a coordinated manner.

"There were ... indications that some of the refugees had been instructed to ask questions of a political nature, and question the result of the popular consultation," Parameswaran was quoted as saying. UN officials in East Timor have repeatedly complained that anti-independence militia, which virtually control the camps, have been spreading misinformation about conditions in East Timor to discourage refugees from returning.

UNTAET spokesman Peter Biro said refugees argreed with the delegation. "Their questions seemed to be the same type and there was a feeling they were being orchestrated, that some groups might have sent some people to turn it into something political," he told AFP by phone from Dili.

Estimates of the number of refugees in West Timor range from 50,000 to 100,000. A comprehensive count has never been undertaken.

Parameswaran said that refugees keen to go home were most worried about their security. "The main concern of the refugees who want to return is their personal security, and we were able to assure them that East Timor is stable and safe," the chief of staff said.

The UNTAET visit to Indonesian-controlled West Timor was at the invitation of the Indonesian military commander there, Major General William da Costa, who accompanied the delegation to the camps.

The delegation, which included representatives from the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN peacekeepers, distributed thousands of posters, brochures and videos describing conditions in East Timor to the refugees.

They also met with the bishops of Kupang and Atambua, and anti-independence leaders, Biro said, describing the trip as "very successful." "Security was good, there were no incidents, and the delegation felt they reached out to those who wanted to return and had the opportunity to explain what life was like in East Timor," he said.

Plans are afoot to ship a group of refugees home by the IOM-chartered vessel, the Patricia Anne Hotung, later this month.